Tag Info

I think there may be a few misconceptions at work here.
The Torah does not tell us to "love" the Egyptians, just (as DoubleAA pointed out in a comment) to not abhor them (Deut. 23:8) - which, as the Torah goes on to say in the next verse, means that we are to allow the grandchildren of Egyptian converts to freely intermarry into the body of the Jewish ...

To add to what @avi said:
According to Kabbalah (Zohar, part II, 34a), Pharaoh represents a serpent who sits in the Nile and says "I created myself and this river. This idea comes from a prophecy in Yechezkel (29:3), where Pharaoh says this. But the Pharaoh in the prophecy is referring to a later Pharaoh, the one that Nevuchadnetzar would destroy.
The ...

Rashi (46:34):
כי תועבת מצרים כל רעה צאן: לפי שהם להם אלהות:
are abhorrent to the Egyptians: Because they (the sheep) are their gods.
The Siftei Chachamim (46:34) (in his second answer) gives a different twist to the word "To'evah", and explains Rashi a little differently. He says that Yosef is telling his brothers that the Egyptians greatly ...

Your question really comes earlier, for in the plague immediately after the pestilence, we find:
וַיְהִי, שְׁחִין אֲבַעְבֻּעֹת, פֹּרֵחַ, בָּאָדָם וּבַבְּהֵמָה
"and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast."
which implies that the Egyptians had animals on which boils "broke forth".
Abarbanel, in his description of the ...

According to Abarbanel, the several prophecies in Chapters 29-32 of Ezekiel are all concerning the future of Egypt (the future from Ezekiel's perspective), but they will not all happen at the same time. The first prophecies were realized during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and his conquering Egypt, and the later prophecies will be realized before the coming ...

Absolutely. That is indeed one of the well-known answers as to how to reconcile these two facts. (I don't recall the original source for this, but an example is here.)
This didn't contradict Hashem's original promise to Avraham, because the wording of that promise was deliberately left ambiguous. The verse (Gen. 15:13) states:
.יָדֹעַ תֵּדַע כִּי גֵר ...

The Yeraim answers that the ban only applies when leaving Eretz Yisroel for Mitzrayim.
The Ritva has another answer he says the ban only applies when most of the Jews live in Israel.
The Rabbeinu Bechaye says the ban on living in Mitzrayim only applied in the times of the Torah when the Egyptians were infamous for their immorality, latter it would not ...

Idol worshipers would buy and sell their gods. For example, Terach, Avraham's father, owned a god-market. It therefore follows that when the Egyptians were faced with starvation, they brought all their possessions, including their gods, to trade in for food.
We see this from the following passage in Beraishis Rabsi (p. 217):
אינו אומר וישמעו אל יוסף ...

Many of the assumptions in your question are questionable, however the Midrashim are full of stories regarding the harshness of Egypt.
One Midrash states that things were so bad, the men and women refused to have children with eachother. (This is one reason why Moshe's birth is itself a miracle)
Slavery it'self was pretty horrid. The Midrashim state that ...

Rav Chaim Yaakov Goldvicht ZT"L (Rosh Yeshiva of Kerem B'Yavneh) had an interesting explanation. For 20 years he was bothered by the question - for years, Yosef served as viceroy of Egypt, and sent no message to his father to tell him he was alive, and made no attempt to contact him. Why not? He gave the following explanation:
Yosef thought that his ...

Exodus 9:3 (emphasis mine):
behold, the hand of the Lord will be upon your livestock that is in the field, upon the horses, upon the donkeys, upon the camels, upon the cattle, and upon the sheep, a very severe pestilence.
This limits the scope of the plague to the animals in the field. Hence, any animal brought inside was not afflicted. So when Verse ...

When no name is given, the lesson and meaning of the story can be expanded for all generations. When a name is given, it is because what is being said is mostly just relevant to the time period that is being discussed, and generalities should not be derived from those verses.
As a quick example.. When dealing with Nimrod, Nimrod has his own special ...

As mentioned in your link, Targum pseudo-Jonathan identifies them in that verse saying:
וקרא לחוד פרעה לחכימיא ולחרשיא ועבדו לחוד הינון יניס וימבריס חרשין דבמצרים בלחשי קוסמיהון היכדין:‏
And Pharoh called to the wise-men and the magicians, and they -- Yannis and Yambris, the magicians of Egypt -- did with their magic thus.

The number of people in a generation is (N/2) * x where N is the number of people in the previous generation and x is the number of children each couple has. If N_0 = 70 and x = 6, after 10 generations, there would be over 4 million children. And that's assuming everyone in all previous generations had died.

Perush Yonason asks this question and does not give an answer. I once heard an answer (do not remember from who) which is difficult to accept. Levi lived 137 years in Egypt. The problems with this answer is numerous, and I think this is a question that has no good answer.

No source, but something I thought of when we learned the portion this year.
It was because Datan and Aviram publicized it that Pharaoh needed to take action. Once word got out that a public servant had been murdered while/for doing his job, there would have been a call for justice from the rest of Pharaoh's court.
Pharaoh gave into the public pressure and ...

Exodus Rabbah 1:26 brings this midrash: one day when Moshe was a child he grabbed Paro's crown and the court magicians counselled Paro to have him killed lest he usurp the throne. Ultimately a test was proposed and Moshe passed (with Gavriel's help), so he was allowed to live. But it's not unreasonable to think that the magicians would continue to caution ...

One possible thought could be that God made the powers of Good and Evil one against each other. Rav Chaim Kaufman ZT"L (Gateshead) says that on the day that Esau came home and ate the lentils, the Medrash says he had just killed the evil Nimrod. Why is it on that same day that Avraham Avinu died as well. He explained that whenever a certain amount of Kedusha ...

Let's say the average couple has six children in total, when the parents are about 20. Then, after 210 years, the population of 70 will increase to (6/2)^(210/20) * 70 = 7.16 million people.
If the children were born when the parents were teenagers, then even five children per couple would lead to millions after 210 years.
Thus, there's nothing so ...

The first bold term is obvious. Without the words "Who sits on his throne", you would think that only Pharoh's son, and not Pharoah himself would be threatened with the plague.
Once that phrase is required, then the next phrase 'behind the millstone" is also needed. Because if it only mentioned the throne, then you might think that only the slaves of ...

Rashi explains that from the most illustrious to the lowliest ones were afflicted.
There are different levels of slaves, and those behind the millstone were the absolute lowest level. And Pharaoh was on the absolute highest level.

One difference might be that in Yishmael's case, it wasn't he personally who was going to be sinning in the future (indeed, he eventually did teshuvah), but his descendants. Whereas Michah and the ben sorer umoreh will be personally guilty.
Another possibility: We know (see Ohr Hachayim to Gen. 37:21) that in general, Hashem is more reluctant to interfere ...